A little bit more from my favorite city, this time taken with my real camera.
Jan 302012
Jan 212012
Wandering through my favorite city last year in May, a few days before the wedding I flew out there for, and snapping shots with the iPhone and my Holga.
3 days later, the DAY before the wedding in question, I ended up in the hospital with an incredibly painful ulcer, followed of course by a Lamborghini Gallardo sighting. Ulcers and Lamborghinis go together? I hope not…
Jul 192011
Early into my conversation with Lauren about shooting her wedding in downtown Manhattan (specifically in gorgeous Soho), she made it clear that she was very interested in my shooting some quirky Holga photography for her.
I just about fell off my chair when she asked for it…
I’d never had anyone ask me to shoot with my beloved Holga before, so after a quick warning about its unpredictability, I absolutely jumped at the opportunity!
Nov 082010
Part 2 is here! What? Did you think I’d forgotten?
Well you’d be kinda right… I almost forgot. I’ve been Photoshopping furiously all day trying to get a very large sample album prepped for design. One of 5 more that I need to work on this month.
Anyway, so here is part 2 of my trip to NYC, in Holga-mode. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Can’t wait to go back in March.
Oh and I LOVE medium format film! I’m finally starting to get the hang of my incredibly light-hungry Holga and it’s making me want to have some more control over a roll of film.
Now, although I’d love a medium format professional film camera like a Contax 645, it’s much more expensive than I’m willing to spend on one right now (several thousand – not to mention development costs and then you have to think about lenses and I’m stuck having to buy cool but very expensive Zeiss lenses), so I bought myself a 35mm Canon Elan 7E for an awesome $55! I should be able to use the lenses I already have on it. Bonus!
Nov 072010
I’ve had a lot of catching up to do since coming back to Utah, but here at last are the pictures from my trip. I’m splitting up the pictures in two parts. Today, I post the pictures taken with my iPhone and my real camera.
Stay tuned for Part 2, coming tomorrow. They’ll be Holga shots, so you know they’ll be interesting!
Day 1: Spent most of the day in planes or the airport. When I landed, my phone started shutting down randomly, often and mostly wouldn’t come back on. My sense of direction was in there (Google Maps), but even worse, so was my hotel’s address… Then when I finally got to the hotel, it was a lot more dodgy than Travelocity had made it appear online. I switched hotels and got myself a long overdue dinner for a measly four bucks.
Delicious food is everywhere and at every price.
Day 2: My first actual day in NYC was spent wandering in a jetlagged haze and trying to get Apple to tell me what was wrong with my phone. Long story short, I now have a new one.
MAN I love New York’s fall colors…
Day 3: I saw a couple of cops waiting for the same train I was about to get on in the subway. I had my giant pro camera with me, so like a crazy person I decided to try shooting some video in a public place and see what happens.
Cop: “Sir, what are you doing?”
Me: “I’m shooting some video…”
Cop: “You can’t do that here, sir.”
Me: “Why?”
She really didn’t like that question. Fortunately, I was able to defuse the situation and she left me alone.
The law doesn’t actually prevent you from shooting photography or video in any public place. I actually looked this up long before the incident, though I also knew that photographers have been getting increasingly harassed by authorities and stupidly painted in a very negative light.
I did end up shooting video in the subway, just when no authorities were around to give me trouble for it.
Still, I was bummed about the incident, wandered into Central Park again but within a few minutes got some calls from real estate agents wanting to show me apartments.
Day 4: After a long and busy day, my good friend Brittany requested some pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge. I was more than happy to oblige. It was already on my to-do list anyway 
Along the way of course, I took pictures and footage of what I could.
Day 5: Attended the PDN Photo Expo. Like a bridal fair, but for photographers shopping for stuff.
Later that night, wandered some more. It would be my last night there… 
Day 6: Waited to push off from the gate for a little longer than expected, then finally climbed to the skies.
Day 6.5: The same night I got home, despite having already done a LOT while in NYC, some friends invited me to a Halloween party, so I went.
The dancefloor:
Apr 042010
The last of the quiet escapades I’ve been pulling off lately.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
I adore New York.
Before even going to San Francisco, I already knew I needed to be in New York. And the funny thing is, and I’m being totally serious here, although yes, it’s kinda funny anyway; I was really nervous about going to New York.
Why?
Well… You know how when you’re dating around and you’re about to meet with someone new and you already think he/she is awesome and you really hope the date lives up to your expectations?…
Like that. Except I was really hoping my date with a city would live up to my expectations.
This is where you can laugh. I know that’s where I do!
But yeah, New York absolutely rocked my world. It more than lived up to my expectations. I even spent a bunch of time digging through craigslist to find apartments. Never managed to see one in person though. See, I made the mistake of lying to the real estate guy and saying I was gonna move to the city in a few months instead of lying and saying I was gonna move there in two weeks.
Apparently that’s about as far out as these guys were willing to consider in terms of bothering to show me an actual place.
Oh well, I’ll lie better next time so I can see what to expect for $2,000/month for a place around 650 square feet… Yup… I told a close friend of mine this and he jokingly (or maybe not?) said “that price is unmentionable in polite company dude”.
Now I don’t want to involve you in my financial life, but at a glance, that’s basically twice what I pay, for RENT instead of a mortgage, and it gives me roughly three times LESS space and no yard. So I look around my house now thinking “Don’t need this, chuck that, sell this” and so on.
I’ve heard people try to offer a solution and say “Ok here’s what you do; move to Brooklyn –” STOP STOP STOP STOP!!!
Nope. No.
NO.
I’ve been to Brooklyn. It doesn’t feel like New York. You may as well be thousands of miles away. Why would I move 2,000 miles just to miss the bullseye?!
It’s gotta be Manhattan.
So now it’s no longer about “if”, it’s about “how”. It’s gonna take a couple of years for it to happen, but it’s gonna happen.
I’ll be going back to New York twice a year until I move. I’ll get a better feel for the city each time, I’ll meet with Art Buyers each time (hopefully) and I’ll refine the plan for my very own eventual big day.
And since it’s still so far in the future, while we wait, here are some pictures from my trip These are all iPhone shots.
A little bit of New York humor. Read that sign… So who’s cleared and stupid enough to eat the fish in small quantities? Men, ages 15 and up. That’s it!! I couldn’t help but laugh. George Carlin said it best: “I EXPECT a little cancer in MY water!”
The letter Y’s light wasn’t burned out, but apparently this place called COLONY chooses to turn on each individual letter in sequence… Um… Not a good idea.
And finally, the gorgeous, clean lines of the Guggenheim Museum (which by the way has some fantastic art).
Holga shots to come soon.
